Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Standing in front of Thanos's assembled army, some part of Stephen Strange couldn't entirely believe that his life had come to this. Just a few years ago he had been a skilled but relatively conventional surgeon, working within the known rules of science to help save lives, and now he was part of an order of sorcerers preparing to mount a final stand against an alien army intent on remaking the universe in the image of a genocidal psychopath.

Granted, the fact that aliens were real had been known to Earth since the Battle of New York when the Avengers first came together, but facing aliens with magic still felt a bit of a contradiction…

Still, he'd deal with that particular contradiction when he had the time to consider the philosophical issues;

"Is that everyone?" he said as he took up position alongside Wong and the other sorcerers.

"What; you wanted more?" Wong said, in his usual tone of mild exasperation.

Strange just had time to place the source of that particular moment of déjà vu when another portal opened up just behind him, this one mixing blue and green energy along with the familiar gold of the sling rings. As Strange and others looked at the new portal, the former neurosurgeon allowed himself a smile as he recognised some of the people emerging from that particular portal.

Nick Burkhardt, Emma Swan, Dave Stutler, Bo, Angel, the green-clad Tommy Oliver and the transformed Billy Batson were each distinctive enough that it wasn't hard to recognise them even after one meeting at least a year ago. Paige Matthews and Kenzi now had black and blonde hair respectively compared to their previous styles, and Willow Rosenberg's clothing style seemed more confident even if she hadn't aged that much. Harry Potter and Ginny Weasley were now at least in their late twenties, and while there was a girl in Mildred Hubble's school uniform who Strange just knew was the youngest Guardian this girl looked very different from the girl he'd seen last time. Most notably, Merlin was now an old man with thick white hair and a beard, and was wearing a dark jacket in a more contemporary style as opposed to his older clothing.

However, even beyond the return of the Guardians, what Strange was particularly pleased to see was they were all accompanied by other allies. From what Strange recalled from seeing the Guardians' friends and their futures when he first cast the spell to bring the team together, he could recognise faces such as Nick's allies Hank Griffin, Monroe, Adeline Schade and Juliette Silverton (although judging by the hairstyle she was going by the name 'Eve' right now), Paige's sisters Piper and Phoebe Haliwell, and Dave's teacher Balthazar Blake. Billy was followed by five people in similar lightning-themed costumes to his own, while Tommy was wearing the familiar green and had thirteen other Power Rangers following him in three different styles of costume. Emma was accompanied by five people, two of whom were likely Emma's parents, Mildred was followed by a slightly chubby girl in glasses and a more slender dark-skinned girl, and Harry and Ginny had a red-haired young man and a bushy-haired young woman he guessed were Harry's friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger. Bo and Kenzi were accompanied by a slender man with a trimmed beard that Strange was fairly sure was her ally Dyson, Willow was followed by a well-dressed blonde and a brunette, and Angel had a pale-haired other vampire and a woman in red leather with blue-tinged skin.

How about that, Thanos? Strange mused, looking at where the purple alien was staring in shock at the gathered new arrivals. As Wanda Maximoff noted exactly who had just joined their side, she smiled and moved from her initial position in front of the forces of Asgard to stand with the other Guardians of Magic, her hands glowing red and a resolute expression on her face as she assessed their enemy on the other side of the field. As Giant-Man burst from the nearby rubble and released the now-intelligent Hulk, War Machine and that alien racoon to join the fray, the other Avengers appeared surprised at the new arrivals, but the fact that Wanda clearly recognised them seemed to be enough for the gathered Avengers. Captain America just gave a final nod to Wanda as the Hulk and War Machine took up their position in the battle-lines, before the man with the shield turned his attention back to their gathered enemies.

"AVENGERS!" Captain America declared, summoning Mjolnir to his hand (Strange wasn't sure how that part had happened when he was fairly sure the hammer had been destroyed, but he wasn't complaining) as he glared at the army before them. "Assemble."

With that declaration, the heroes charged towards Thanos's army, all ready to take out their rage on the beings who had done so much damage with his warped vendetta. Strange would look into determining exactly how the Guardians of Magic had joined this particular confrontation later, but right now, they had to focus on Thanos's minions.

And make sure he doesn't get his hands on our Gauntlet…

Chapter Text

After six years since learning of his history as a Grimm, it wasn't often that Nick was left wondering how he ended up facing these kind of things. He would admit that he'd faced a few wesen over the years who didn't neatly fit into the usual categories- he still wasn't sure what La Llorona had been about as one key example- but the idea that he'd respond to a call asking him and the others to help face an alien army…

He was just glad that he had been visiting Monroe's house for one of their now-established 'team dinners' when the initial message came through. The mental 'download' of information about what they were up against had left him with a headache at first, but once he had takena moment to put it all together and explained the key details to his friends, Monroe, Hank, Eve and Adalind had agreed to join him while Rosalee stayed to keep an eye on the children. A part of Nick worried about bringing Hank into something like this, but after everything his friend had done to help him since the day they'd saved Carly from her family, Nick wasn't about to tell his partner to stay behind when Hank was that insistent on coming along.

Besides, even if the sheer scope of this fight was far beyond anything he'd ever faced in his world, if Doctor Strange felt it was necessary to bring the Guardians of Magic back together, Nick wasn't going to object to the chance to see his old friends again no matter the wider stakes. It was slightly disturbing to see Harry and Ginny as full-grown adults when he remembered them as children only a few years ago, but if time travel had already been involved in everything back then he could put up with a few more anomalies. They could talk about what had happened in their lives since their last team-up once this fight was over, which just gave Nick another reason to focus on surviving this.

"DAMN!" Hank yelled, grabbing some kind of alien gun from where its former wielder had dropped it and opening fire on the still-advancing army. "You sure these things are aliens?"

"They're certainly not any wesen I ever heard of," Adalind noted as she and Eve banished a few nearby monsters with a telekinetic blast, while Nick glimpsed a giant man in red and black literally stamping down on another creature. "I just don't know what to call them-"

"Just go with aliens!" Dave called out as he suddenly ran over to join them, firing a few energy balls at a couple of the larger creatures nearby. "Their boss wants to unmake the universe; we can worry about the fine details later!"

"Good call," Eve nodded at him before she flipped a larger alien over so that it landed on a couple of its fellows. "You are?"

"Dave Stutler; Prime Merlinian," Dave smiled politely at the group.

"Merlinian?" Hank asked, after firing a couple of shots from his new weapon at a few of the smoother-skinned aliens fighting their side. "As in Merlin? King Arthur, Camelot-?"

"Dave's basically the heir to Merlin's power back in his world," Nick explained, before his gaze shifted to the bearded man in the long coat who seemed to have arrived with Dave. "Is that… you said your teacher was named Balthazar, right?"

"Balthazar Blake, yeah," Dave smiled at him. "Veronica and Becky would have come along, but someone had to keep an eye on the kids-"

"You're a dad?" Nick grinned at his former teammate, glad to hear the news despite the current situation.

"Still new, but… well, so long as you're careful about it, the magic makes things easier," Dave shrugged, before he turned to fire another energy ball at a few passing aliens. "We can talk more once these guys are down."

"Good call," Nick said, grabbing an alien weapon of his own as Dave moved on to another part of the battlefield.

"Seems like a good guy," Hank noted, even as he started picking off aliens with greater ease as he became used to the new weapon.

"They all are," Nick affirmed, careful to keep one hand ready if he had to fight while keeping his new weapon aimed and ready to act.

He'd never fought against these kind of numbers with his original team before, but he could definitely get used to this…

"Seriously, what are these things?" Piper called over to Paige as she flicked her hands at the nearest group of monsters, frustrated when the nearest few were only partially blown back with injuries rather than outright blowing up.

"Pretty sure they're aliens," Paige noted, silently orbing a couple of the nearest aliens up so that Phoebe could kick them back (she was just grateful that Strange had called for their help after Phoebe had regained her full powers; she doubted these guys would let Phoebe kick them the regular way). "I think Billy and Wanda mentioned their world had a few run-ins with invasions, so it's not that out of the blue."

"And aliens can resist magic?" Phoebe called down, even as she weaved through the air to strike at a couple of other aliens. Paige wasn't sure how physically powerful these things were; if a few of the other people in this army were human she guessed the aliens weren't that tough on their own, but Phoebe was able to knock them back if she flew at them with sufficient force.

"More like our magic doesn't quite work the same way here," Paige answered her sister's question, silently orbing a weapon out of the hands of a nearby alien and firing it at the nearest enemies. "There's a lot of different kinds of magic out there in other worlds; too much to go into detail right now, but you not packing as much of a punch as you usually do isn't that big a deal."

"At least that's something," Piper said, before she changed tactics and froze a few of the nearest aliens. The sisters moved back as a few of the soldiers who seemed to be from an African nation (Paige hoped that didn't come across as racist) charged past to cut down the immobilised aliens with their strange weapons, allowing Piper and Paige to take in some of the other groups of fighters. Paige noticed an overweight man in a thick beard swap hammers with a slender man wielding a broken shield, as well as a green-skinned woman kicking a man in the crotch in another part of the field, but the current conflict was too chaotic for her to even be sure who was winning at this point. She could confirm that any familiar faces she could see were still fighting, but at this point the focus had to be on stopping the current threat.

"Do those guys seriously have wands?" Phoebe called down at Paige. Following the direction her sister had indicated, Paige wasn't sure if she should smile or feel sad at the sight of four adults, two of whom were clearly a grown-up Harry and Ginny, firing spells from what had to be wands. It was good to see them again, but remembering how they'd been kids just four years ago, it felt really strange to see them as adults so soon.

"Yeah, they're on the team," Paige smiled. "Well, Harry and Ginny- the guy in glasses and the redheaded girl- were on the team, but I'd guess the other two are with them; the guy looks like he could be Ginny's brother or something…"

"So you're accepting a couple of strangers as part of your 'team'?" Piper smiled slightly at Paige as she fired off another couple of pops. "I thought that you hadn't met these guys-"

"They're fighting with people I do recognise; we can go with that right now!" Paige clarified, as she focused on the fight. "Come on; we have to finish this!"

There were times when Bo wondered if she should regret the fact that she had such a case of 'Chronic Hero Syndrome' (she was fairly sure Kenzi had used the term at least once) that she could sometimes end up picking fights before she knew what she was up against. At this point she knew that she could hold her own against most humans even without feeding, and she was fairly sure that some of the people also fighting these aliens weren't enhanced in any way themselves, but that didn't change the fact that she was used to at least having the option of feeding on her opponents for a boost. She'd tried that early on at the start of the fight, but whether it was because she just couldn't feed on aliens or these things simply didn't find her attractive, Bo was left with her natural strength and only Kenzi and Dyson for back-up. They were both doing their best (and she was definitely glad Lauren wasn't here; for all of the doctor's strengths, this kind of fighting wasn't an area where Lauren would be much use), but they were just getting overwhelmed… and had she just heard some kind of car lock beep on the battlefield…?

Bo's increasingly apprehensive fears and growing confusion were cut short when a blur of purple knocked her immediate attackers aside, followed by a series of other multi-coloured figures diving in to knock the surrounding aliens back before they could get any further. Kenzi found herself in the arms of a tall figure wearing a tight blue outfit with a lightning-bolt on it, while Dyson was backed up by a well-muscled man in green, leaving Bo staring at a familiar figure in red.

"Billy?" she smiled at her old teammate in relief.

"Hey Bo," the aged-up teen nodded at her before indicating the group around him, which Bo only now noticed included a dark-skinned girl in purple, a kid in grey, and another girl in red who she guessed was somehow closer to Billy than the rest. "Good to see you again."

"Hey…" Kenzi began as she smiled at the man in blue, before her face fell and she looked over at Billy. "To check, are these guys all-?"

"My foster siblings," Billy nodded.

"So they're all aged-up like you…" Kenzi finished with a resigned nod. "Typical."

"What's wrong?" the girl in purple asked, an eager smile on her face that somehow reinforced that this was a kid in an older body.

"Just a… kind of adult thing, I think," the woman in red put in, looking apologetically between Kenzi and Bo before she looked at Dyson. "OK, Billy mentioned Bo and Kenzi before we came here, but you are?"

"Dyson," the wolf-shifter clarified. "I've… worked with Bo for a long time; when she got this call for help, I came along."

"Glad to have you on the team," Billy smiled, before he turned to punch back a larger group of aliens approaching them. "Let's deal with this lot then we can talk properly, huh?"

"Works for me," Dyson said, as he lashed out at the nearest attacker himself. He might not have Billy's level of strength, but he was at least doing a better job of holding his own than Bo was on her own.

"Actually…" Bo looked uncertainly at Billy. "I wouldn't be asking if the stakes were anything less serious, but… could I…?"

"Just a quick top-up, huh?" Billy nodded in understanding as he looked around at the rest of his group. "OK, Bo's… she basically feeds on life energy, but if we all let her feed on us, she can just take a little to give herself a boost without seriously hurting any of us, OK?"

"You trust her?" the girl in red asked.

"With my life," Billy nodded.

That seemed to be enough for the rest of the group, the six gathering around Bo after a quick super-speed spin cleared the area immediately around the succubus. Taking advantage of the brief clarity, Bo faced Billy, reached out with that rarely-accessed part of herself, and 'pulled', drawing in a surge of energy from her old teammate and his siblings that swiftly left her feeling more empowered than she could ever remember feeling before.

"Whoa…" she said, looking at where her hand was actually crackling with energy. "That… that was…"

Sensing something coming up behind her, she spun around and lashed out with a punch that sent her latest would-be attacker literally flying backwards while surrounded by lightning, putting her in mind of lightning strike victims in cartoons.

"Cool!" the Chinese-looking guy in grey said with a grin as he looked at Bo. "So you've… what, borrowed our powers?"

"Copied them for a little bit by borrowing some energy from you, anyway," Bo said, flexing her shoulders before she turned back to the mass of aliens gathering before her. "And it probably won't last long, so let's make the most of it, OK?"

With that statement, she charged forward and began to tear a new wave of destruction through the opposing army, revelling in her current power. It might only be temporary, but as long as she could hit like this, she was going to take down as many of these aliens as she could.

Strange wasn't sure if the Guardians of Magic coming back together at this time meant good things for their future victory or just made things more temporally complicated, but either way at this point his focus had to be on holding the line until the time was right. The single future that led to their victory hadn't included this turn of events directly- he guessed that the addition of fighters from outside his native universe threw off more than a few estimates- but so far nothing was going against that final vision…

Flying through the air to get a better angle, Strange brought a group of Chitauri upwards and then sent them crashing back down to the ground through what he and other sorcerers had taken to calling 'Dark Portals'. It essentially left those who passed through such portals stuck on the outskirts of the Dark Dimension, not to the point where they'd actually fall in but to the point where they'd have a few very unpleasant moments of life before they finally died. As he reached the ground, Strange was interrupted in considering his next move by the sound of loud rockets behind him, prompting him to turn back and see Stark having arrived at the same location.

"Hey," Stark said, the helmet retreating from his face as he looked at the sorcerer. "You said one out of fourteen million we win, yeah? Tell me this is it."

"If I tell you what happens," Strange said, hoping that he wasn't totally lying about what he was about to tell the first modern Avenger, "it won't-"

He was interrupted when a trio of girls ran across the battlefield nearby, firing spells that turned their attackers into what looked like snails that were subsequently tramped by the larger creature behind the first wave of enemies. Stark's helmet snapped back into position as he turned to fire his own blasts at the larger creature, culminating in Strange catching the last creature stranding with a whip-like spell and tossing it off to the side.

"Thanks…" a red-headed girl said, panting as she checked over her friends before she turned to look at the two men and her face broke into a relieved smile. "Doctor Strange!"

"…Mildred Hubble, right?" Strange said after a moment's pause. Astral projection was needed to properly see another person's soul, but he could glimpse enough of this girl's essence to recognise something of the youngest member of the Guardians of Magic despite her new face. "What happened to you?"

"Magical accident changed my appearance and I couldn't change back," the girl he now recognised as Mildred said with a nonchalant smile as she indicated her friends. "This is Maud and Enid; Maud and I were visiting Enid when we got your message and she… well, here we are."

"I'm sorry, who are these kids?" Stark cut in.

"Witches," the dark-skinned girl- Strange thought she had been identified as Enid- said with a casual smile.

"Mildred… assisted Wanda and myself with a problem some time ago, along with many of these others," Strange explained, waving a hand at where he saw a few of the other Guardians waging their own battles. "It's been a while, but they are reliable allies."

"…You better be right about that," Stark said, before his helmet snapped down he flew off back into battle. There had been a grim tone to his voice that suggested to Strange that Stark wasn't happy about the idea of the girls being involved in something like this, but at least the other man recognised that this wasn't the time to focus on something like that.

Watching as her parents dived into action, Emma just hoped that she hadn't made a mistake bringing them along. Things had been relatively peaceful in their world since Regina became the official Queen of the united realms, but while she knew that she couldn't turn down Strange's call for help when it came through, she wasn't sure if she'd been right to bring other people along. Her parents obviously weren't going to be left behind now that they knew she was going to another world, and Regina's magic might be useful, but Ruby and Elsa had basically just been there when the call came through and offered to help out while Hook stayed to keep an eye on Hope. She wasn't going to complain about having help facing something like this, but she wished that she had more time to explain the situation to everyone, rather than just dive in and hope for the best.

"I can't believe this!" Mary Margaret looked at her daughter in frustration even as she stabbed an attacking alien. "You fought a war in a completely different reality and never told us?"

"It was a one-time thing and it wasn't- look, I didn't think it would happen again, so this isn't the time to go on about it!" Emma countered, parrying a claw-strike with her own sword before she cut off the attacker's hand and kicked him back. "Strange said this was going to be a big problem, and I believe him; let's just get through this then talk about me keeping secrets!"

"Good call," Elsa said, firing a blast of ice at the nearest wave of aliens. "There are times and places to go over exposed secrets, and this isn't the time to complain about keeping them."

"Quite true," an older man said, walking up to join the group and waving the staff in his hand with a strange gesture that actually seemed to call down lightning to strike a couple of particularly large aliens. "Good to see you again, Emma Swan."

"Who-?" Emma began, before she properly registered the voice, studied the man's features between his long white hair and thick beard, and her eyes widened in shock. "Merlin?"

"Merlin?" her parents and Regina repeated behind her.

"But this isn't-?" her father began.

"He's not the Merlin from our world, actually," Emma clarified as she looked back at them before turning back to Merlin. "But how are you- how long has it been for you?"

"A while," Merlin said, in a manner that put Emma suddenly in mind of the way Gold had spoken about some of the things he had done in the past. "Less time for you, I take it?"

"It's… it gets a bit complicated," Emma shrugged, before she spun around to fire her own spell at a nearby alien that had tried to sneak up on them while she was talking with Merlin. "We can talk about this later?"

"Agreed," Merlin smiled in response, turning around and walking back into battle with a speed that belied his age.

"So that was… another Merlin?" Ruby looked uncertainly at Emma even as the werewolf remained tensed and ready for her next enemy. "Apart from that guy you told me about from when you went to Camelot when we were dealing with Arthur, I mean?"

"Like I told him, that's something we can talk about after this is over," Emma affirmed, noticing a man who seemed to be dressed like a black cat running by holding a golden glove. "Let's just focus on the aliens right now."

Tommy would have to admit that it felt a little weird fighting alongside the Guardians of Magic and other Power Rangers at the same time. He wasn't sure if he had been made to forget about that experience in some way after he'd returned home or if he'd just chosen to keep it secret, as he couldn't even remember if he'd forgotten it or not (and maybe that was why his memory had been a bit erratic when he was a teen), but the important thing was that he was here now. Rallying the original and Zeo Rangers alongside the Dino Thunder team was a bit strange- he was just glad that they'd all been together for their latest unofficial reunion when he got Strange's message- but he wasn't going to complain about having back-up against these numbers. These aliens might be tough, but they weren't that much stronger than Tengas or Cogs as far as he could tell, and they didn't have much in the way of skill.

"Man!" Zack called out as he swung the Power Axe at the latest wave of enemies, sending them flying back. "Why did we ever stop using these things?"

"Says the guy packing the big axe that doubles as a gun?" Minh pointed out as she weaved around the battlefield with the Power Daggers. "Don't get me wrong, these are cool, but the range is so short…"

"They were good enough for your mother, they're good enough for you, young lady!" Kimberly called over as she fired off a few energy arrows from the Power Bow.

"Can we just deal with these guys?" Conner called out as he spun the Tyranno Staff and knocked a few aliens down, allowing Rocky and Adam to take the aliens out properly with their Zeo weapons. "I get that the weapons are tricky, but we work with what we've got!"

"Says the guy with great range and the option for more firepower?" Ethan noted, awkwardly parrying blows with the blade on the end of his Tricera Shield. "I still don't get-"

"What's that?" Jason called out, pointing at a glow of red off in another part of the field. When Tommy followed his old friend's gesture and saw Wanda take up position in front of a large purple alien, her eyes glowing red and the fury on her face obvious even at this distance, Tommy knew that it was time to call in the bigger guns.

"Billy!" he called over to the original Blue Ranger. "Is it possible to call the zords from here?"

"In theory!" Billy confirmed, parrying another attack with the Power Lance. "The pocket dimension where the zords are kept exists somewhat out-of-sync with our own reality; so long as you keep your focus you should be able to summon them here!"

"Time to try it out, anyway," Tommy said, leaping back and taking up position on a higher bit of rubble. The current battlefield was too chaotic for his allies to summon all of their relevant Megazords, but if his and Billy's pet project worked out, this would only need him and he could provide Wanda with important back-up. "I summon the power of the Dragonzord!"

As the familiar screech of his first zord filled the air, Tommy waited until he could see the large green, black and gold zord come marching towards them from just beyond the current battle. Satisfied that the first part of the plan was working, he tossed the Dragon Dagger to Jason before he shifted to the White Ranger and called on the Falconzord. Passing Saba on to his old friend, Tommy shifted to the Red Zeo Ranger and made his final call, smiling as the Red Battlezord emerged from another dimensional rift to land in the middle of the field.

"All right," Tommy smiled, taking his weapons back from Jason before he leapt into the air, landing in the familiar cockpit of his personalised zord, feeling a bit like the teenager he'd been the last time this particular zord had been part of his regular arsenal as he quickly adjusted the controls. "Here goes nothing… Master Megazord, power up!"

Just as Billy had assured him would happen, the Dragonzord split its body in the same style as when it had merged with the original Dinozords to become the Mega Dragonzord, settling into position on the Red Battlezord's shoulders like it had with the original Megazord so many years ago. That part of the process complete, Tommy smiled under his helmet as the Falconzord flew in and settled into position on the Red Battlezord's back, followed by the new combo practically leaping into the air. Turning his attention towards the battleship that was already turning its focus towards the swinging figure in red and blue armour, Tommy raised his own weapons and began to fire, the combined firepower of three of his favourite zords raining down on Thanos's main ship.

"Oh yeah!" Tommy grinned, taken back to the days when the fate of the world had been in his hands as he tore through Thanos's ships. He could see the rest of his allies dealing with the alien's ground forces, but now that he was up in the air he was going to enjoy taking the fight to the larger vessels before he turned back to a more hands-on approach…

Peter Parker wasn't sure at what point he'd lost control of the situation, but this fight was rapidly crossing the line from cool to complicated. He'd been staying ahead of the aliens at first- he might not like the 'Instant Kill' feature in his suit most of the time, but these were the kind of odds where he had to make an exception- but catching a lift from Thor's hammer and then riding on a winged horse was making things just that bit more complicated. He wasn't sure where the three giant robots had come from, but he was just relieved when they merged together and started attacking Thanos's forces rather than the Avengers and the other heroes; things were bad enough without those things being a problem-

When a stray shot knocked Peter off the winged horse, he only just managed to keep a grip on the Gauntlet as he fell through the air, glimpsing a golden figure flying through one of those leviathan things that had been part of the Battle of New York even as he fell towards the ground. Peter heard Captain America call out to 'Danvers' over the radio for a moment as he fell, but his focus soon turned to staying alive rather than listening in to the other heroes. Even with nothing around for him to web-swing off like he usually would, Peter was just able to fire a line at one of the passing leviathans, allowing him to slow his descent just enough to reach the ground in relative safety. Dazed for a moment and still intimidated by the explosions above him, he retreated to a nearby pile of rubble, trying to take a moment to catch his breath and work out his next move once the explosions above had stopped.

This is not being a coward, this is taking a moment to plan instead of jumping in like an idiot…

The explosions from above had only just stopped when there was a blaze of gold in front of him, and Peter found himself looking up at a woman in a red, blue and gold suit that looked like some kind of fine armour. She had a short haircut around an attractive face, but what Peter noticed most was that she almost literally seemed to be glowing, faint blue lines of energy surging around her body as he watched.

"Hi," he said, trying not to feel too intimidated by this remarkable new arrival. "I'm… Peter Parker."

"Hey, Peter Parker," the woman smiled at him. "You got something for me?"

Recognising that voice from a fragment of conversation he'd overheard on the radio as he fell, Peter got to his feet with a wince and handed the Gauntlet to her, only for his initial hope to falter as he saw the advancing army of Chitauri forces coming towards them.

"I… don't know how you're gonna get it through all that," he said; as powerful as this woman seemed to be, that was a lot of people to try and get past…

"Don't worry," an accented voice said, followed by Wanda Maximoff appearing alongside him, flapping wings behind Peter suggesting that the winged horse was back.

"She's got help," another voice said, one of the female Wakandans who'd joined alongside the Black Panther now standing beside the blonde.

"And we're here to kick some alien ass," a blonde Peter didn't recognise put in, this woman wielding a red weapon that looked like some kind of strange scythe as she walked alongside a redhead in surprisingly casual clothes and a brunette in tighter dark clothing. "Which is a sentence I never thought I'd say even after everything else I've fought…"

"Less talking, more killing!" a blue-skinned woman who looked like she was either wearing armour or was some kind of cyborg said, as Peter realised a small army of women had gathered around him, a mix of familiar and unfamiliar faces. Seeing Ms Potts in blue armour was a surprise even if it made sense, and he was glad to see that Mantis girl was OK, but he wasn't sure where the green-skinned woman or the two women with large gold lightning-bolt designs on their chests had come from.

Peter wasn't sure how these people had all gathered around where he had fallen in time (and he was definitely wondering what prompted some of them to show up in what looked like standard street clothes; even Ms Maximoff's outfit at least looked like something someone would wear in a fight), but as they led a new charge towards the Chitauri in front of him, he could at least appreciate that they were here in the first place-

When a woman with short dark hair fell over early in the counter-attack, Peter wasn't sure what had happened at first, but when he saw one of the Chitauri standing over the fallen fighter, he knew he had to act. Despite still feeling sore after his fall, Peter leapt forward and kicked the nearest Chitauri away from the woman, bending over to check her condition; it looked like she'd been stabbed, but from what he could tell the wound didn't seem to have hit anywhere immediately serious even if it would be a problem. Taking up a defensive position over the fallen woman, Peter lashed out as any further Chitauri came too close, looking up as the other women cut their way through the battlefield ahead. He could see a mix of energy blasts, something that made him think 'spells' (and even if magic being real made things complicated it was also so cool!), and even a few physical weapons; the woman on the winged horse actually seemed to cut one of those Leviathan things with just her sword as she flew past it…

It was just when Peter was starting to hope that they could still do this that Thanos appeared from the other end of the battlefield, charging towards them with a sense of horror on his face that Peter felt that psychopath had no right to even pretend to feel. Ms Potts and a couple of the other women tried to hold him back with their own energy blasts, and the woman in red with lightning on her chest fired a lightning-bolt at Thanos as well, but it only knocked Thanos back rather than out. The woman with energy surging around her flew past Thanos towards the truck, and for a moment Peter hoped that they might be able to pull this off-

When Thanos threw his sword towards the truck, the blazing headache that struck Peter was so overwhelming that he only just had time to pull the woman out of danger before the subsequent shockwave blasted through the entire battlefield.

Angel wasn't sure if he should be grateful at the overcast conditions of this fight or disturbed at how badly things were in this area for the sun to be completely hidden without magic. He wasn't going to complain about the chance to help the Guardians again, and even if there'd been that moment of awkwardness when he, Spike and Illyria saw Buffy, Willow and Faith on the other side of the battlefield…

He put that aside as he hacked his way through his latest opponent; these things might be aliens, but they fell to his sword as easily as most of the demons he'd faced in his long life, so at least he didn't have to worry about that. He just hoped that he and Spike could get to safety if the current dust cloud dissipated any time soon, but for the moment this fight was the priority. The shockwave caused by the destruction of the truck had been a problem, but Angel had managed to dodge past the initial blast and stay in sight of the Gauntlet that was apparently the focus of the current crisis, even if there were still a lot of Chitauri between him and the main battle. Even with those multi-coloured fighters helping to hold the line- he was fairly sure they were connected to Tommy but some of those designs were very different- there was still too many aliens to hold them all off, but if so many people had been going to that much effort to get the Gauntlet to the truck there had to be a reason for it.

As the shockwave sent a mass of water falling over the edges of the surrounding rubble, a group of people wielding magic similar to Doctor Strange had moved into action to hold back the surge of water, accompanied by Willow, Harry and his associates, Dave, and an old man who Angel was fairly sure was Merlin, but that left the large purple alien disturbingly close to the Gauntlet. The large combined robot was busy in the sky with the large flying serpent-things, so their most obvious source of firepower was unavailable, and there were too many other fights going on around here for people to be spared to confront the purple alien.

A man in red-and-gold armour forced the purple alien- probably the 'Thanos' Doctor Strange's message had identified as the aliens' leader- to the side for the moment, but the alien soon threw the man off to the side and advanced towards the Gauntlet again. A somewhat overweight man wearing dark armour and carrying two large hammers charged in to take over the fight, straining to force the sharper end of the larger hammer back towards Thanos's neck. Angel briefly felt optimistic when Billy few in to attack the purple alien from behind, but when his hand grabbed the hammer it trigged a surge of lightning that caused Billy to turn back to his regular self. A man in blue who Angel guessed from Wanda's stories was Captain America dived forward in time to carry Billy to safety, but while the man with the hammers was still in the fight, the lightning strike was enough of a distraction for Thanos to send his opponent flying backwards.

"No…" Angel said, keeping his voice low as he struggled towards the confrontation. He didn't know what he could do himself if all these other stronger fighters were being thrown back- even as he watched that glowing blonde woman charged in and was thrown backwards by Thanos once again- but if he understood enough about what the Gauntlet was capable of, he knew that he couldn't let Thanos get his hand on it…

Then he saw another familiar face close by amid the chaos of the current battle, and inspiration struck him.

"Paige!" he called out to the witch, hoping that he had understood enough about how the Gauntlet worked as he held up his arm. "The Gauntlet!"

Nodding in understanding, Paige held out her hand and the Gauntlet vanished from the purple alien's hand, only to re-materialise around Angel's raised hand. As the metal contracted around Angel's arm, he was briefly reminded of the Glove of Mygheon, from that long-ago day in Sunnydale when he'd been basically reunited with the rest of Buffy's friends after his time in Hell, even if he was sure that the pain that seemed to envelop his body from his arm went far beyond anything that glove could have forced on its wearer.

This… is gonna hurt… the vampire reflected grimly, even as the purple alien turned to look at him in horror.

"You cannot-!" Thanos began, holding out his now-bare hand towards Angel.

"I take that as a challenge," Angel said, a small part of him hoping that he had suppressed enough of the pain he was feeling to sound suitably badass even as the rest of him focused on his purpose before he clicked his fingers.

Go to Hell, you purple psychopath…